Top Scholar

Chapter 54 Slang
The process of recognizing godparents doesn't require the involvement of the clan, nor does it require the old man's intervention; the eldest uncle and his wife handled it all themselves.

As soon as Su Lu entered, his aunt took out the prepared gifts and had the two brothers present them to their godmother.

Gifts for the family reunion included cloth shoes, fabric, a piece of cured meat with skin and bone, called "heart's flesh"; a jar of local liquor, symbolizing "longevity"; and a packet of brown sugar, symbolizing "sweet days".

They also prepared small gifts for Xiaotian. Su Lu gave her an exquisite ox horn hairpin; Su Tai gave her a beautiful ox horn comb. Actually, both were made by Su Tai from a single ox horn…

An altar was set up in the main room, with incense, candles, fruit, pastries, and wine. The godmother was invited to sit at the head of the table, and the family members witnessed the event.

Guided by their father, the two brothers performed the three-kowtow ceremony to their godmother: the first kowtow to thank her for accepting them, the second to acknowledge their kinship, and the third to ask for her protection.

The godmother got up and helped the child up, happily holding both of their hands tightly, saying, "Let's see who dares to bully their mother again!"

It's unclear who is protecting whom.

The godmother then presented the two with the prepared 'family recognition gifts'. She was always generous and had someone make a robe of Luotian cloth for Su Lu, which was better than the one issued by the academy in terms of both tailoring and material.

Su Lu stroked the finely woven, soft, and supple dark blue fabric, feeling a surge of emotion. Just before the Lunar New Year, she had never worn new clothes. Now, she suddenly had three sets; life was finally getting better.

Last time, his godmother had already made Su Tai a set of clothes, and this time she even bought him a mulberry wood hunting bow, along with ten iron-tipped bamboo arrows. Xia Ge'er was overjoyed, grinning from ear to ear as he hugged the bow and arrows.

Ever since he broke his family's heirloom ox horn bow two years ago, he has been dreaming of having another bow...

~~
In China, no matter what kind of ceremony is held, there will always be a banquet at the end.

Today we will also hold a "family reunion banquet" and drink "change of address wine". However, the scale will be small, mainly for close relatives... Considering the actual situation of the two clans, no one else will be invited, only Su Lu's whole family and his godmother and godmother.

Following tradition, my aunt prepared a stew for the hearth. A clay pot was hung over the hearth, and various vegetables were put in and stewed together. Everyone ate from the same pot, signifying that they were now family.

This is a common way of eating among the Han and Yi people in Southwest China, and Su Lu's family often does it this way too. But today's stew is a bit tough. His aunt laid bitter greens and radishes at the bottom of the pot, then layered yellow bamboo shoots and ham slices in the middle, and topped it with meatballs and shiitake mushrooms.

She started simmering it over charcoal for two hours in the afternoon, and would occasionally use a spoon to repeatedly pour the broth from top to bottom into the pot to infuse it with flavor.

The whole family ate in complete silence, even the proprietress and Xiaotian couldn't help but abandon their reserve and concentrate on eating...

My aunt's emotional intelligence is as low as her cooking skills, so in Erlangtan, no one cooks better than her.

After everyone had satisfied their cravings, they remembered to offer a toast to their godmothers. Su Lu and Su Tai each offered a cup of wine to their godmothers, formally changing their address to them.

The godmother also gave each of her two godsons a meatball, symbolizing family reunion, and told them to "come visit often".

Su Youcai also said, "His godmother often comes to visit as well."

"Definitely, definitely." After two cups of sorghum liquor, the proprietress's pretty face flushed, her beauty as radiant as a peach blossom. "I'll be coming to see my son quite often from now on."

Seeing this, the old man frowned and said, "He's gone for a walk after eating. His godmother can take her time."

After saying that, he got up as if his butt was on fire and went downstairs...

The proprietress was immediately taken aback, wondering what she had said wrong.

"Don't worry about his godmother. That's just how the old man is; he gets easily agitated and can't sit still."

My aunt said casually, "I'll add some more vegetables, and we can eat slowly."

"Sister-in-law, you don't need to trouble yourself. My daughter and I have already finished eating." The proprietress felt it was time to take her leave.

"Don't be shy, godmother. This is your own home from now on." The uncle waved his hand, signaling the landlady not to get up.

Seeing that he had something to say, the proprietress had no choice but to sit down again.

Sure enough, my uncle asked, "How have you thought about that matter? I need to get back to Commander Ma as soon as possible, whether it's a deal or not."

"What do you think, Second Brother?" The proprietress looked at Su Youcai.

“This is a big decision, you have to make it yourself.” Su Youcai hurriedly waved his hand and said, “I’ve been through a lot in my life, always falling into pits, I wouldn’t dare to give you any bad advice.”

Seeing his resolute attitude, the proprietress looked at the Su brothers again: "Then what does my son mean?"

Su Tai knew the question wasn't directed at him, so he consciously lowered his head and ate his rice.

“I agree with my father…” Su Lu didn’t want to say more, so he said seriously, “Besides, I am a student now, and I should focus on my studies and not be distracted.”

"..." The proprietress had come to ask him for advice, so how could she let him off so easily? She pleaded softly, "Good son, please help your godmother. I promise it will only be this once, and I won't bother you again."

"Qiu-ge'er, from now on, whatever your godmother says is my word, and you have to listen to her." Su Youcai was unusually talkative today; it was unclear what he was so excited about being recognized as a godson. "Sigh, alright." Having just been recognized as a godmother, he had to give her face. Su Lu could only express his thoughts:
"Actually, I was there that day too, and I saw that Commander Ma was a smiling tiger."

“You’re right,” the uncle said, deeply agreeing. “That’s what we all call him behind his back.”

"So if we don't agree to his offer, we can forget about doing the sweet water business, at least not in Taiping Town."

"I definitely have to keep the business going; I still have 70% of my debt to pay off," the proprietress said. If she didn't want to keep the business running, she could grit her teeth and pay off another 20%.

But where can you find such a profitable business?

"And we can only do it in Taiping Town. We can still see the commanders in the town, but if we move to Hejiang or Lincheng, we won't even be able to get through the government offices." The uncle chimed in, "Without the protection of the higher-ups, we'll be devoured by the local bullies until there's nothing left."

Although the uncle was trying to facilitate the matter, what he said wasn't a lie. The proprietress nodded and said, "That's exactly right."

She sighed softly and said, "My late husband didn't believe in this superstition, which is why he suffered such a misfortune."

"Huh?" The Su family was taken aback. Could it be that the sinking of the He brothers' ship was not an accident?
"I was just making things up out of thin air, let's not talk about that anymore." The proprietress quickly stopped talking and got back to the main topic: "I've decided, I'm going to continue running this business in Taiping Town."

“Then we have to agree to him.” Su Lu analyzed, “Agreeing is a mixed bag. The downside is that we might be controlled by him, and we might also end up like the oil-selling woman combing her hair.”

“It won’t be any worse than last year,” the proprietress said firmly. “Now, tell me the good things.”

"The advantage, of course, is that we can take advantage of Commander Ma's influence to expand and strengthen our business. I see that the town usually has a considerable flow of customers, and there are quite a few restaurants and eateries, which are all stable sources of income. By using Commander Ma's name, it won't be difficult to take over this area."

Su Lu paused for a moment, then said in a deep voice, "And at least in Taiping Town, there will be no more competitors."

"That's for sure. Who would be so blind as to steal Commander Ma's business?" Uncle chuckled and said, "What did Confucius say when he stood by the river?"

"Time flows like a river." Su Lu understood instantly.

“Yes, yes, anyone who’s not afraid of death, come on over.” The uncle nodded emphatically.

"Don't talk nonsense," Su Youcai said, embarrassed.

The proprietress was also slightly surprised, wondering how her godson had been admitted to the academy.

"In short," Su Lu coughed lightly, then steered the conversation back to the main point, "The key is to make him realize his godmother's unique abilities and understand that this business isn't something just anyone can do. That way, he won't interfere with the business and will simply wait for his share of the profits... which is the best outcome for everyone."

"Hmm, how can we make him back down?" The proprietress agreed; in fact, she had been hesitant because she was worried about being usurped.

“There are two plans. One is ‘Zheng Bo Ke Duan,’ which is the most thorough, but it will hurt the enemy a thousand while harming eight hundred of your own, and it will take a long time,” Su Lu said confidently.

"Is there a quick way?" Su Youcai asked.

"Yes, we package our business in a way that he can't understand," Su Lu said. "So that he believes that everyone has their own expertise, and naturally he won't dare to interfere recklessly."

"But our business is clearly very simple; it can be explained in just a couple of sentences." The elders were completely bewildered. "How could someone as shrewd as Commander Ma be confused?"

"Shrewdness only helps with judgment, it can't make up for ignorance." Su Lu said confidently, "For example, we can use terms he's never heard of to package our business!"

"That seems to make sense," the others said, seemingly understanding but not quite. "But how do we package it?"

“Isn’t that easy? For example, like this…” Su Lu quickly organized his thoughts and began to speak fluently:
"Our core business is anchored in the Taiping Town flavor liquid consumption market. We build a full-scenario user reach network with the first-generation compound flavor matrix of 'sweet and sour base', 'pre-alcohol fermentation substances', and 'natural source of life' as the core, with the goal of achieving absolute dominance in the regional ecosystem."

"Our vision is to launch a dual-engine growth strategy in the near future: first, to iterate the flavor sub-matrix to form a tiered system of 'basic volume-selling products' plus 'premium premium products'; second, to tackle the challenges of sealing and freshness-locking technology to extend the product's optimal shelf life, leverage local traffic advantages, and open up cross-regional distribution channels to create a second growth curve!"

"..." Everyone in the room stared wide-eyed. They could understand each word individually, but put them together, they couldn't understand a single sentence.

"Mommy, I can't understand a word." Little Tiantian shrank into the landlady's arms, feeling extremely frustrated.

"Don't worry, Mom won't understand either," the proprietress said with a wry smile as she hugged her daughter.

"Second brother, what does Qiu-ge mean? Why is it even more powerful than classical Chinese?" The eldest uncle was also dumbfounded, and the two of them looked at Su Youcai.

"Don't look at me, I didn't understand either." Su Youcai said in surprise, "Son, is our business really that complicated?"

"It just sounds profound, but the meaning is actually very simple," Su Lu said with a smile.
"What I just said is that the business we are going to do right now is to take over the sweet drink market in Taiping Town. We will use drinks made from oranges, sweet wine and water to dominate the daily consumption of the people and catering establishments such as restaurants. Our goal is to form an absolute monopoly and monopolize the market."

"As for future development, there are two directions: one is to continuously launch new flavored beverages to form a product series with a mix of high and low prices; the other is to research methods to keep beverages fresh for a long time, so that we can take advantage of the local transportation hub to sell our products to other places and create new sources of profit!"

(End of this chapter)